Key Takeaways from CIOs at the Gartner Symposium

December 12, 2018
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The AnZ (Aus & NZ) IT market opportunity is one of high growth and attractive for Indian IT providers. The Gartner Symposium, Gold Coast is a large scale programme in which we participate every year and is a veritable part of our market strategy for the region. The end users’ participation is impressive, spanning across the sectors of BFSI, Retail, Healthcare, Education, Govt. Automotive, Real Estate & Utilities. It posits a great opportunity for our member companies to network, understand market trends from global CIOs and establish future partnerships.

While in the midst of impressive statistical evidence to success, it is equally noteworthy the kind of trends that we were privy to while interacting with CIOs and particularly at the NASSCOM Exclusive CIO Roundtable on “Smart Partnerships are critical for thriving in an Era of Disruptive Transformation”.

These aspects of Dx is primarily examined through the lenses of Technology & information, Leadership & Business Strategy.

The AnZ CIOs aren’t very unlike their global peers and face the same barriers to growth & scale. Capabilities such as in AI Analytics, IoT, Cybersecurity are in short supply and it’s a global phenomenon.

The much avowed changing role of CIOs is real & evident. They have to be much more business focused for which working with cross-functional teams is a requisite, as is, taking on leadership responsibilities outside of IT to drive measurable outcomes.

Enterprise IT budgets have grown appreciably larger in 2018, after nearly two years of stagnation.

If businesses want high growth then what are the top 3 focus areas particularly in the AnZ region? Well, they be: Increase in market share; Digital transformation; and, an intense focus on customer satisfaction.

A typical performer in the AnZ region would have 35% of processes and 20% of the revenue pie comprising digital, whereas for leaders these numbers would be 55% & 35% respectively.

Both old business models and high-cost new business models will not be sustainable. Essentially, organizations will have to work towards finding the sweet spot. In the short – medium term, as legacy gets outpaced, what’s the revenue mix likely to be? This is not easily answered either as there are differing benchmarks across industries and players’ position in the value chain.

Addressing Cybersecurity threats can’t wait any longer!

Initiating digital is relatively easier but scaling up isn’t so and that wall has to be dismantled to make it a sustainable proposition.

The largest brick in the “Digital Wall” – if it can be called that – is culture. Every other parameter pales in comparison, including CEOs’ commitment etc.

Almost 50% of CIOs also hold the role of CDOs. It’s pretty much clear that they are adapting to cross functional roles and working with Joint Digital teams.

Disruptive technologies are fast approaching their tipping points and all are growing in very high double digits.

A Pat on Our Backs for Establishing Connects?

Yes, certainly. 175 leads were generated!

Here’s a list (partial) of positive feedbacks.

“The sole reason we come with NASSCOM is that we get visibility. Our booth is very well located and we are open to participating again with NASSCOM next year. We’ve had some good conversations that we will go back to and pursue. Some conversations have also been with our existing clients with whom we could discuss other opportunities that were difficult to do otherwise”, Parag Wagle, VP & Head of APAC, ITC Infotech (Bangalore.

“Sessions were great. The CIO roundtable was very helpful in terms of understanding the challenges our clients go through. It was very. well conducted and Shivendra did a great job in engaging both sides. The Dinner session with Gartner Analyst was also good. We’ve had many conversations alongside the event which we will aggressively pursue”, JasjeetSingh Arora,APAC Practice Lead –Hybrid Cloud, HCL Technologies( NCR).

“Our 1st time at Gartner, and we are happy it got facilitated via NASSCOM. CIO Roundtable was very well structured in a way that it made CIOs open up on their challenges & we could make a better pitch. List of visitors shared by NASSCOM before the event was also very helpful in identifying the right targets. It’sa good start for us”, Raghav Jain, Assistant Vice President, ToTheNew(NCR).

“Our 1st time at Gartner and our experience has been pretty positive in terms of coordination, quality of audience, booth location and visibility we got through NASSCOM. In absence of NASSCOM it would be uneconomical for a small company like us to participate. The CIO’s round table added a lot of value. We had 25-30 good conversations and quality of interactions have been very good. I think we should be able to make progress on 20-30% of these leads”, Uday Birajdar,CEO& Co-Founder, Automation Edge (Pune).